ablativen : a grammatical case expressing typically
the relations of separation and source and also frequently such relations
as cause or instrument.
See alsocase.

ablautn : a systematic variation of vowels
in the same root or affix or in
related roots or affixes esp. in the Indo-European languages that is usu.
paralleled by differences in use or meaning (as in Englishsing
:sang :sung :song;
GreeklégôI
say : lógosword,
LatintegoI
cover : togaouter garment).
Seevowel.

accentn : 1. an articulative effort
giving prominence to one syllable over adjacent
syllables; the prominence thus given a syllable; 2.
rhythmically significant stress on the syllables
of a verse usu. at regular intervals; 3.archaic:
utterance; 4. an accented letter;
accent
mark.
See alsopitch,
stress.

accent
markn : a mark (as an acute
mark, grave, or circumflex)
used in writing or printing to indicate a specific sound value, stress,
or pitch, to distinguish words otherwise identically spelled, or to indicate
that an ordinarily mute vowel should be pronounced. Also calledstress mark.

activeadj and n : asserting that the person or thing represented
by the grammatical
subject performs the action represented
by the verb.
See alsovoice,
middle,
passive.

acute
accentn : 1.
accent having the form of a single slanting stroke whose right end is higher
than its left b: marked with an acute accent; 2.
the variety indicated by an acute accent. See aloaccent
mark.

adjectiven : a word belonging to one of the major form classes in any
of numerous
languages and typically serving as
a modifier of a noun to denote a quality of the thing
named, to indicate its quantity or extent, or to specify a thing as distinct
from something else. See alsopossessive
adjective, proper adjective. Seepart
of speech.

adjunctn :
1. a word or word group
that qualifies or completes the meaning of another word or other words
and is not itself a main structural element in its sentence; 2.
an adverb or adverbial (as heartily in "Most children eat heartily"
or at noon in "We will leave at noon") attached to the verb of a
clause esp. to express a relation of time, place, frequency, degree, or
manner. See alsoadverb,
conjunct,
disjunct.

antecedentn :1. a substantiveword,
phrase,
or clause whose denotation is referred to by a pronoun
(as John in "Mary saw John and called to him"); broadly: a word
or phrase replaced by a substitute; 2.the
conditional element in a proposition (as if A in "if A, then
B").

antepenult
(orantepenultima)
n :
the third syllable of a word
counting from the end (as -cu- in
accumulate).

aoristn : an inflectional form of a verb typically denoting simple occurrence
of an action without reference to its completeness, duration, or repetition;
in the Greek grammar it was referred to the past
simple tense. See alsoaspect.

apostrophen : a mark (') used to indicate the omission of letters or
figures, the possessive case (in English),
or the plural of letters or figures.

articlen : any of a small set of words or affixes
(as a, an, and the) used with nouns to
limit or give definiteness to the application. Seedeterminer.

aspectn : the nature of the action of a verb as to its beginning,
duration, completion, or repetition andwithout reference to its position in time;
a set of inflected verb forms that indicate aspect. See alsoverb. See alsoperfective,
imperfective,
aorist.

augmentativen
: a word, affix or name indicating large size and sometimes awkwardness
or unattractiveness -- comparediminutive.

bowdlerization
[from Thomas Bowdler, English editor (d. 1825)] n :1.
expurgation of the original text by omitting or modifying parts considered
vulgar. 2. text modification
by abridging, simplifying, or distorting in style or content.

calquen : a compound, derivative, or phrase that is introduced into
a language through translation of the constituents of a term in another
language (as superman from German Ubermensch).

cedilla
(Sp. cedilla, dim. form of ceda, zeda the letter z, fr. LL.
zeta zed)
n
: a diacritical mark placed under a letter [ç]
to indicate an alteration or modification of its usual phonetic value.

circumflex
accentn : a mark (^) orig. used in Greek over
long vowels to indicate a rising-falling tone and in other languages to
mark length, contraction, a particular vowel quality (as in Portuguese)
or disappearence of a letter (as in French).
See alsoaccent
mark.

clausen : 1. a group of words containing
a subject and predicate and functioning as a member of a complex or compound
sentence;
2. a separate section of
a discourse or writing. See alsononrestrictive
clause, restrictive clause, sentence.

cliticn : a word that is treated in pronunciation as forming a part of
a neighboring word and that is often unaccented or contracted. See alsoaccent,
enclitic,
mesoclitic,
proclitic.

common
nounn : a noun that may occur with limiting modifiers
(as a or an,
some,
every, and my) and
that designates any one of a class of beings or things.
See also noun.

comparisonn : the modification of an adjective or
adverb to denote different levels of quality, quantity,
or relation. Seedegree.

complementn : an added word or expression by which a predication is made complete
-- as president in "they elected him president" and beautiful
in "he thought her beautiful". See alsoobject
complement, subject complement.

conjugationn : 1. a schematic arrangement
of the inflectional forms of a verb; 2.
verb inflection; 3. a class of
verbs having the same type of inflectional forms; 4.
the act of conjugating: the state of being conjugated. See alsoverb,
inflection.

conjunctn : an adverb or adverbial (as so,
in addition, however, secondly) that indicates the speaker's or writer's
assessment of the connection between linguistic units (as clauses).
See
alsoadverb,
adjunct,
disjunct.

consonant
shiftn : a set of regular changes in consonant
articulation in the history of a language or dialect:
1. such a set affecting the Indo-European
stops and distinguishing the Germanic languages from
the other Indo-European languages -- compareGrimm's
law; 2. such a set affecting
the Germanic stops and distinguishing High German from the other Germanic
languages.

continuantn : a speech sound (as a fricative
or vowel) that is produced without a complete closure
of the breath passage -- comparestop.
See
alsoconsonant.

count
nounn : a noun (as bean or
sheet)
that forms a plural and is used with a numeral, with
words such as many or few, or (in English) with the indefinite
article a or an.Comparemass
noun. See also noun.

creole
n :pidgin
language that has become established as the native language of a speech
community. Examples of Romance based creoles are Haitian Creole, Louisiana
Creole (derived from French), and Papiamento (derived from Spanish and
Portuguese) spoken in Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire. Typically, a
creole arises when the speakers of one language become economically or
politically dominant over speakers of another language or languages, particularly
if the latter are illiterate. At first, a simplified or otherwise modified
form of the language of the dominant group comes to be used for communication
between members of the different groups. At this stage the communicating
language is a lingua franca and, if simplified in its forms, a pidgin;
when the lingua franca becomes the standard or native language of a community,
usually of the less dominant group, the language has become a creole. See also lingua
franca.

dativen : the grammatical case that marks typically the indirect
object of a verb, the object of some prepositions, or a possessor.
See
alsocase.

dentaln : a consonant articulated with
the tip or blade of the tongue against or near the upper front teeth.

derivationn : 1. the formation of
a word from another word or base (as by the addition
of a usu. noninflectional
affix);
2.
an act of ascertaining or stating the derivation of a word; 3.etymology;
4.
the relation of a word to its base.

determinern : a word (as an article,
possessive, demonstrative, or quantifier) that makes specific the denotation
of a noun phrase.

diaeresisn
: 1.a mark in the form of
two dots placed over a vowel to indicate that the
vowel is pronounced in a separate syllable. 2.the
break in a verse caused by the coincidence of the end of a foot with the
end of a word.

digraphn :
1. a group of two successive
letters whose phonetic value is a single sound (as ea in
head or
ng in ring) or whose value is not the
sum of a value borne by each in other occurrences (as
ch
in chin where the value is [t] + []);
2.
a group of two successive letters;
seeligature.

diminutiven : a word, affix, or name indicating small size and sometimes
the state or quality of being familiarly known, lovable, pitiable, or contemptible
-- used of affixes (as -ette, -kin, -ling) and of words formed with
them (as kitchenette, manikin,
duckling), of clipped
forms (as Jim), and of altered forms (as Peggy) -- compareaugmentative.

diphthongn:1. a gliding monosyllabic
speechsound (as the vowel combination
at the end of toy) that starts at or near the articulatory position
for one vowel and moves to or toward the position of another; 2.digraph;
3.
the ligature a and e joined together (æ) or
o
and e joined together (œ). See alsofalling
diphthong, rising diphthong, semivowel
(glide), vowel.

direct
objectn : a word or phrase denoting the goal or
the result of the action of a verb. See alsoobject.

disjunctn : an adverb or adverbial (as luckily in "Luckily we had
an extra set" or in short in "In short, there is nothing we can
do") that is loosely connected to a sentence and conveys the speaker's
or writer's comment on its content, truth, or manner. Seeadjunct,
adverb,
conjunct.

etymologyn :
1. the history of a linguistic
form (as a word) shown by tracing its development since its earliest recorded
occurrence in the language where it is found, by
tracing its transmission from one language to another, by analyzing it
into its component parts, by identifying its cognates in other languages,
or by tracing it and its cognates to a common ancestral form in an ancestral
language; 2. a branch of linguistics
concerned with etymologies. Seederivation,
folk
etymology.

explosiven : a consonant characterized by explosion
in its articulation when it occurs in certain environments. Seestop.

femininen : the gender that ordinarily includes most words or grammatical
forms referring to females. See alsogender,
masculine,
neuter.

figure
of speechn : a form of expression (as a simile
or metaphor) used to convey meaning or heighten effect often by
comparing or identifying one thing with another that has a meaning or connotation
familiar to the reader or listener.

first
personn : 1.
a set of linguistic forms (as verb
forms, pronouns, and inflectionalaffixes) referring to the speaker or writer of the
utterance in which they occur; a linguistic form belonging to such a set;
reference of a linguistic form to the speaker or writer of the utterance
in which it occurs; 2. a style
of discourse marked by general use of verbs and pronouns of the first person.
See alsoperson,
verb.

folk
etymology n : the transformation of words so as
to give them an apparent relationship to other better-known or better-understood
words (as in the change of Spanish cucaracha to English cockroach).
Seeetymology.

fricativen : a consonant characterized by
frictional passage of the expired breath through a narrowing at some point
in the vocal tract. Seecontinuant. See
alsoaffricate.

front
voweln : a vowel articulated
at or toward the front of the oral passage. Seepalatal.

future
perfect tensen : a verb tense that is traditionally
formed in English with will have and shall have and that expresses
completion of an action by a specified time that is yet to come. See alsotense, tenses in English.

future
tensen : a verb tense expressive of time yet to
come. See alsotense.

gendern : 1.
a subclass within a grammatical
class (as noun, pronoun, adjective, or verb) of a language
that is partly arbitrary but also partly based on distinguishable characteristics
(as shape, social rank, manner of existence, or sex) and that determines
agreement with and selection of other words or grammatical forms;
2.
membership of a word or a grammatical
form in such a subclass; 3.
an
inflectional form showing membership in such a subclass. See also feminine,
masculine,
neuter.

genitiven : a grammatical case marking typically a relationship of
possessor or source. See alsocase.

gerundn :1. a verbal
noun in Latin that expresses generalized or uncompleted action; 2.
any of several linguistic forms analogous to the Latin gerund in languages
other than Latin; esp. the English verbal noun in -ing that has
the function of a substantive and at the same
time shows the verbal features of tense,
voice,
and capacity to take adverbial qualifiers and
to govern objects. Seeverb.

gerundiven :1. the Latin future passive
participle that functions as the verbal adjective,
that expresses the fitness or necessity of the action to be performed,
and that has the same suffix as the gerund; 2.
a
verbal adjective in a language other than Latin analogous to the gerundive.
Seeverb.

gliden : 1.
a less prominent vowel
sound produced by the passing of the vocal organs to or from the articulatory
position of a speech sound --
compare diphthong;
2.
semivowel.

glottal
stopn : the interruption of the breath stream
during speech by closure of the glottis.

grave
accentn : 1.
accent
having the form of a mark moving downward from left to right b: marked
with a grave accent;
2. of the variety
indicated by a grave accent. See alsoaccent
mark.

great
vowel shiftn : a change in pronunciation of the
long vowels of Middle English that began in the 15th
century and continued into the 16th century in which the high vowels were
diphthongized and the other vowels were raised.

homophonen : 1.
one of two or more
words pronounced alike but different in meaning or derivation or spelling
(as the words to, too, and two); 2.
a character or group of characters pronounced the same as another character
or group. See alsoword.

hypercorrectionn
: the production of a nonstandard linguistic
form or construction on the basis of a false analogy
(as "badly" in "my eyes have gone badly" and "widely" in "open widely").

hyphenn : a punctuation mark - used esp. to divide or to compound
words, word elements, or numbers.

imperativen : the grammatical mood that expresses the will to influence
the behavior of another. See alsomood.

imperfect
tensen : a verb tense used to designate a continuing
state or an incomplete action esp. in the past. See alsotense,
past
tense, perfect tense.

imperfectiveadj
: of a verb form or aspect - expressing action as incomplete or without
reference to completion or as reiterated. See also
aspect,
perfective,
verb.

indicativen : the grammatical mood that represents the denoted act or state
as an objective fact -- the indicative mood. See alsomood.

indirect
objectn : a grammatical object representing the
secondary goal of the action of its verb -- as her
in "I gave her the book". See alsoobject.

infinitiven : a verb form that performs some functions of a noun and
at the same time displays some characteristics of a verb. See also noun,
mood,
verb.

infixn : a derivational or inflectional
affix appearing in the body of a word (as Latin -n-
in vinco 'I vanquish' as contrasted with vici 'I vanquished').
See
alsoaffix.

inflectionn : the change of form that words undergo to mark such distinctions
as those of case, gender, number, tense, person, mood, or voice; a form,
suffix, or element involved in such variation. See also noun,
verb
(conjugation).

interjectionn : a word or phrase used in exclamation (as "Heavens!", "Dear me!").
Seepart of speech.

koinen [Gk koinê, fr. fem. of koinóscommon]
1.cap: the Greek language
commonly spoken and written in eastern Mediterranean countries in the Hellenistic
and Roman periods; 2.a dialect
or language of a region that has become the common or standard language
of a larger area.

labialn : a consonant (like [p], [b], [m], [f]) uttered with the participation
of one or both lips. See more atconsonant.

labiodentaln : a consonant uttered with the participation of the lip
and teeth.
See more atconsonant.

languagen :1. the words, their pronunciation,
and the methods of combining them used and understood by a community; 2.
audible, articulate, meaningful sound as produced by the action of the
vocal organs;
3. a systematic means
of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of conventionalized signs,
sounds, gestures, or marks having understood meanings; 4.
the suggestion by objects, actions, or conditions of associated ideas or
feelings; 5. a formal system
of signs and symbols (as FORTRAN or a calculus in logic) including rules
for the formation and transformation of admissible expressions; 6.
machine language; 7. form or
manner of verbal expression; specif: style; 8.
the vocabulary and phraseology belonging to an art or a department of knowledge;
9. the study of language esp. as a
school subject.See alsoanalytic,
synthetic.

liaisonn : the pronunciation of an otherwise absent consonant sound
at the end of the first of two consecutive words the second of which begins
with a vowel sound and follows without pause.For examples seethe
Liaison in French.

ligaturen : a printed or written character consisting of two or more letters
or characters joined together. See alsodigraph,
diphthong.

lingua
francan : auxiliary or compromise language used
between groups having no other language in common. Examples are English
and French for diplomatic purposes. The term lingua franca "Frankish
language" was first applied to a jargon or pidgin based on
southern French and Italian, developed by crusaders and traders for use
in the eastern Mediterranean during the Middle Ages. In the post-Renaissance
period of European exploration, many other such contact languages developed--e.g.,
Indo-Portuguese (Ceylon), Annamite-French (Indochina), Papiamento of Curaçao
(based on Spanish and Portuguese), etc. Insofar as a European language
was simplified or distorted in pronunciation or grammar, it became a pidgin.
When such a pidgin or other lingua franca replaced the original language
of a speech community, it became a creole.

linguistic
atlasn : a publication containing a set of maps on which
speech variations are recorded -- called also dialect atlas.

locativen : a grammatical case that denotes place or the place where
or wherein.
See alsocase.

loose
sentencen : a sentence in which the principal clause
comes first and subordinate modifiers or trailing elements follow. See
alsosentence.

masculinen : the gender that ordinarily includes most words or grammatical
forms referring to males. See alsofeminine,
gender,
neuter.

mass
nounn : a noun (as sand or water)
that characteristically denotes in many languages
a homogeneous substance or a concept without subdivisions and that in English
is preceded in indefinite singular constructions by some rather
than a or an -- comparecount
noun. See also noun.

middlen : typically asserting that a person or thing both performs
and is affected by the action represented. See alsovoice,
active,
passive.

modal
auxiliaryn : an auxiliary
verb (as can, must, might, may) that is characteristically used
with a verb of predication and expresses a modal modification and that
in English differs formally from other verbs in lacking -s and -ing forms.

modificationn
: a limitation or qualification of the meaning of a word
by another word, by an affix, or by internal change.

nonrestrictive
clausen : a descriptive clause that is not essential
to the definiteness of the meaning of the word it modifies -- as who
is retired in "my father, who is retired, does volunteer work".
See
alsoclause.

noun
phrasen
: a phrase formed
by a noun and all its modifiers and determiners; broadly: any syntactic
element (as a clause,
clitic,
pronoun,
or zero element) with a noun's function (as the subject
of a verb or the object of a
verb or preposition).
See also
noun.

numbern : a distinction of word form to denote reference to one
or more than one; also: a form or group of forms so distinguished. See
alsodual,
singular,
plural.

optativen : a verbal mood that is expressive of wish or desire. See
alsomood.

orthographyn : 1. the art of writing
words with the proper letters according to standard usage; 2.
the representation of the sounds of a language
by written or printed symbols;
3. a
part of language study that deals with letters and spelling.

passiveadj and n : asserting that the grammatical subject
of a verb is subjected to or affected by the action
represented by that verb. See alsovoice,
active,
middle.

past
participlen : a participle
that typically expresses completed action, that is traditionally one of
the principal parts of the
verb, and that is traditionally
used in English in the formation of perfect tenses
in the active voice and of all tenses in the passive
voice.

past
perfectn : a verb tense that is traditionally formed
in English with had and denotes an action or state as completed at or
before a past time spoken of. See alsotense, tenses
in English.

past
tensen : a verb tense expressing action or state
in or as if in the past; it is considered: -- expressive of elapsed
time, as wrote in
"on arriving I wrote a letter" (this is
called aoristin the Greek grammar); -- expressing action
or state in progress or continuance or habitually done or customarily occurring
at a past time, as was writing in "I was writing while he dictated"
or loved in
"their sons loved fishing" (it is described in
many languages as imperfect tense).See alsotense,
imperfect tense,
perfect
tense.

perfectn : a verb form or verbal that expresses
an action or state completed at the time of speaking or at a time spoken
of. Seeperfect tense.

perfectiven : expressing action as complete or as implying the notion
of completion, conclusion, or result - perfective aspect (verb). See
also aspect,
imperfective,
verb.

periodn : 1. an utterance from one
full stop to another, sentence;
2.
a well-proportioned sentence of several clauses; 3.periodic
sentence; 4. the full pause
with which the utterance of a sentence closes; 5.
a point (.) used to mark the end (as of a declarative sentence or an abbreviation)
-- often used interjectionally to emphasize that no more need be said <I
don't remember -- ~>. See alsosentence.

periodic
sentencen : a usu. complex sentence that has no subordinate
or trailing elements following its principal clause (as in "yesterday
while I was walking down the street, I saw him"). See alsosentence.

personal
pronounn : a pronoun (as I,
you, or they) that expresses a distinction of person.

phonemen : any of the abstract units of the phonetic system of a
language that correspond to a set of similar speech
sounds (as the velar [k] of
cook and the palatal [k] of kin)
which are perceived to be a single distinctive sound in the language.

phrasen : 1. a characteristic manner
or style of expression, diction; 2.
a brief expression; 3. a word or group
of words forming a syntactic constituent with a single grammatical function
<an adverbial ~>.

phrase
bookn : a book containing idiomatic expressions of a
foreign language and their translation.

pidginn
: language with a greatly reduced vocabulary and a simplified
grammar, often based on a western European language. Pidgins usually arise
as methods of communication between groups that have no language in common;
the pidgins in some instances later become established first or second
languages of one of the groups involved. Some examples of pidgin are Chinese
Pidgin English, Haitian French Creole, and Melanesian Pidgin English. See
also
lingua franca, creole.

pitchn : 1.
the property of a sound
and esp. a musical tone that is determined by the frequency of the waves
producing it -- highness or lowness of sound; 2.
the difference in the relative vibration frequency of the human voice that
contributes to the total meaning of speech; 3.
a definite relative pitch that is a significant phenomenon in speech. See
alsoaccent, stress.

present
participlen : a participle
that typically expresses present action in relation to the time expressed
by the finite verb in its clause
and that in English is formed with the suffix -ing and is used in
the formation of the progressive tenses.

present
tensen : the tense of a verb that expresses action
or state in the present time and is used of what occurs or is true at the
time of speaking and of what is habitual or characteristic or is always
or necessarily true, that is sometimes used to refer to action in the past,
and that is sometimes used for future events. See alsotense,
tenses in English.

present
perfect tensen : a verb tense that is formed in
English with have and that expresses action or state completed at
the time of speaking.
See alsotense, tenses
in English.

proper
adjectiven : an adjective that is formed from a proper
noun and that is usu. capitalized in English. Seeadjective.

proper
nounn : a noun that designates a particular being
or thing, does not take a limiting modifier, and is usu. capitalized in
English -- called also proper name. See also noun.

qualifiern : a word (as an adjective)
or word group that limits or modifies the meaning of another word (as a
noun) or word group.

reciprocal
pronounn : a pronoun (as each other) used when
its referents are predicated to bear the same relationship to one another.
See alsopronoun.

reflexive
pronounn : a pronoun referring to the subject of the
sentence, clause, or verbal phrase in which it stands; specif (in English
the pronouns compounded with
-self).
See alsoreflexive
verb,
pronoun.

reflexive
verbn : verb relating to an action directed back
on the agent or the grammatical
subject (as in "he
perjured himself").
See alsoverb,
reflexive
pronoun.

restrictive
clausen : a descriptive clause that is essential
to the definiteness of the word it modifies -- as that you ordered
in "the book that you ordered is out of print". See alsoclause.

rising
diphthongn : a diphthong in which the second element
is more sonorous than the first. See alsodiphthong.

rootn : the simple element inferred as the basis from which a
word is derived by phonetic change or by extension
(as composition or the addition of an affix or inflectional
ending).

schwan : 1. an unstressed mid-central
vowel (as the usual sound of the first and last vowels
of the English word America). 2.
the symbol that is in the form of an inverted and reversed lowercase e
used for the schwa sound and less widely for a similarly articulated stressed
vowel (as in cut).

second
personn : 1.
a set of linguistic forms (as verb
forms, pronouns, and inflectionalaffixes) referring to the person or thing addressed
in the utterance in which they occur; a linguistic form belonging to such
a set; 2. reference of a linguistic
form to the person or thing addressed in the utterance in which it occurs.
See alsoperson,
verb.

semivoweln : 1. a speech sound
(as [j], [w], or [r]) that has the articulation of a vowel
but that is shorter in duration and is treated as a consonant
in syllabication; 2. a letter
representing a semivowel.

sentence
fragment n : a word,
phrase,
or clause that usu. has in speech
the intonation of a sentence but lacks the grammatical structure usu. found
in the sentences of formal and esp. written composition. See alsosentence.

sentence
stressn : the manner in which stresses are distributed
on the syllables of words assembled
into sentences.
Called also sentence accent.

subjunctiven : a grammatical mood that represents a denoted act or state
not as fact but as contingent or possible or viewed emotionally (as with
doubt or desire). See alsomood. For more details
seeThe Subjunctive: General Idea.

substantiven :noun; (broadly) a word or word group
functioning syntactically as a noun.

suffixn : an affix occurring at the end of a word, base, or phrase.
Compareprefix.
See alsoaffix.

supinen1.a Latin verbal
noun having an accusative of purpose in -um and an ablative
of specification in -u. 2.an
English infinitive with to.

syllable
n : 1. a unit of spoken language
that is next bigger than a speech sound and consists of one or more vowel
sounds alone or of a syllabic consonant alone or of either with one or
more consonant sounds preceding or following; 2.
one or more letters (as syl, la, and ble) in a word
(as syllable) usu. set off from the rest of the word by a centered
dot or a hyphen and roughly corresponding to the syllables of spoken language
and treated as helps to pronunciation or as guides to placing hyphens at
the end of a line. See alsopenult,
antepenult,
disyllable,
monosyllable,
polysyllable,
trisyllable.

synonymn : one of two or more words or expressions of the same language
that have the same or nearly the same meaning in some or all senses. See
alsoword,
antonym. Comparehomonym,
paronym.

syntheticadj : (of language) characterized by frequent and systematic
use of inflected forms to express grammatical
relationships.
See alsoanalytic.

third
personn : 1.
a set of linguistic forms (as verb
forms, pronouns, and inflectionalaffixes) referring to one that is neither the speaker
or writer of the utterance in which they occur nor the one to whom that
utterance is addressed b: a linguistic form belonging to such a set;
2.
reference of a linguistic form to
one that is neither the speaker or writer of the utterance in which it
occurs nor the one to whom that utterance is addressed.
See alsoperson,
verb.

umlautn:1.the change of
a vowel that is caused by partial assimilation to a succeeding sound or
that occurs as a reflex of the former presence of a succeeding sound which
has been lost or altered (as to mark pluralization in goose, geese or
mouse, mice).
2.a vowel resulting
from such partial assimilation. 3.a
diacritical mark placed over a vowel to indicate a more central or front
articulation;
comparediaeresis.

uvulan : the pendent fleshy lobe in the middle of the posterior
border of the soft palate.

voweln : 1. one of a class of speechsounds in the articulation of which the oral part
of the breath channel is not blocked and is not constricted enough to cause
audible friction; broadly: the one most prominent sound in a syllable;
2. a letter or other symbol representing
a vowel -- usu. used in English of
a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes
y. See alsofront
vowel,
schwa.See alsogreat
vowel shift.

wordn : 1. a speechsound or series of speech sounds that symbolizes and
communicates a meaning without being divisible into smaller units capable
of independent use; 2. the entire
set of linguistic forms produced by combining
a single base with various inflectional elements
without change in the part of speech elements;
3. a written or printed character or
combination of characters representing a spoken word.

word
stress n : the manner in which stresses are distributed
on the syllables of a word.
Called also word accent.